O JUGOSLOVENSTVU SAMOSTALNIH RADIKALA
THE POSITION OF THE INDEPENDENT RADICAL PARTY REGARDING THE IDEA OF YUGOSLAV UNIFICATION

Summary/Abstract: The idea of Yugoslav unification, one of the most significant concepts of this sort in the Balkans, continues to attract historiographic research, despite a considerable number of commendable books already written on the subject. There is, in connection to this, another question that has not been examined thoroughly enough in the past and it is that of the view of Yugoslav unification held by the Yugoslav Radical Party, the only political organization in the Kingdom of Serbia whose program favored the concept of creating a Yugoslav community. It seems right to analyze the position of the Independent Radicals regarding this question in the period beginning with the party’s founding early in the 20th century, following its separation from the Radical Party, and extending to the outbreak of World War I and the formation of the first Yugoslav state. The importance and complexity of this subject require a monographic approach, in which the emphasis of research and analysis should be placed on the individuals most prominent in supporting the idea of Yugoslav unification, the general atmosphere following 29 May 1903, and the significance of the program of Yugoslav unification as a way of simultaneously ensuring national independence, social justice, and the full democratization and modernization of Serbia in the Western sense. The Independent Radicals’ program -of Yugoslav unification rested on what they considered to be a realistic basis for national survival and progress, yet the party’s high expectations concerning this program indicated an idealized vision of what it could achieve. Nevertheless, it must be said that in the entire history of the Yugoslav state the idea of Yugoslav unification was never realized in the way proposed by the Independent Radicals. In the various phases of its development the Yugoslav state has never been organized as the democratic community they had envisioned.

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